British Intelligence

JoeyPeeps

Do many Irish join British intelligence? I know there is an Irish intelligence unit but I as far as I know they recruit internally from Garda and Irish military.

pablomakaveli

If you're talking about intelligence in the armed forces than no, you need to be a British citizen. I'm pretty certain the same applies to intelligence roles in the MOD as well.

Horse84

pablomakaveli wrote: »

If you're talking about intelligence in the armed forces than no, you need to be a British citizen. I'm pretty certain the same applies to intelligence roles in the MOD as well.

http://www.easons.com/p-4424796-charlie-one.aspx
The author of this is cork born and bred, while not having joined British army intelligence directly as I think he was originally a signaller he supposedly did serve in a very clandestine unit as part of British intelligence. Not sure what the rules are to be honest.

pablomakaveli

Horse84 wrote: »

http://www.easons.com/p-4424796-charlie-one.aspx
The author of this is cork born and bred, while not having joined British army intelligence directly as I think he was originally a signaller he supposedly did serve in a very clandestine unit as part of British intelligence. Not sure what the rules are to be honest.

Had a look into this myself and seems I may have been wrong. Seems like there may not be citizenship requirements but residency requirements to qualify for the required security clearance.

When I was joining I initially picked roles in REME and the Sigs Corps only to be later told I wasnt eligible for those roles as they required a certain level of security clearance. I'd just assumed it was a nationality requirement.

tac foley

For obvious reasons, joining the INT Corps is more difficult than joining a donkey-whalloping or foot-slogging regiment. From personal experience of just ten days short of thirty-three years service, I'd opine that you are p*****g up a rope. But hey, you never know until you try, right?

This is from the Army website -

Regular Army

British citizens, British subjects under the Nationality Act, 1981, British Protected Persons or Commonwealth Citizens. If you are a citizen of a Commonwealth country, you'll need to have lived in the UK for at least 5 years before you start an application to join the Army.

You must not have been out of the UK for a continuous period of more than 180 days (6 months) during this 5 year period. A passport is required with validity for 2 years from the date of entering Army service. Your UK Residency status and Passport will be checked at application.

If in doubt - try this -


Email: IntCorpsHQ-Recruitment-Mailbox@mod.uk
Phone: Recruitment and Selection Team 01462 752135 or 01462 752339

Joint Intelligence Training Group
Chicksands
SHEFFORD
Bedfordshire
SG17 5PR

tac

ohnonotgmail

Horse84 wrote: »

http://www.easons.com/p-4424796-charlie-one.aspx
The author of this is cork born and bred, while not having joined British army intelligence directly as I think he was originally a signaller he supposedly did serve in a very clandestine unit as part of British intelligence. Not sure what the rules are to be honest.

pablomakaveli wrote: »

Had a look into this myself and seems I may have been wrong. Seems like there may not be citizenship requirements but residency requirements to qualify for the required security clearance.

When I was joining I initially picked roles in REME and the Sigs Corps only to be later told I wasnt eligible for those roles as they required a certain level of security clearance. I'd just assumed it was a nationality requirement.

As tac already said the current position is that you must be a british citizen. Perhaps this was not always the case. It is also not clear if he was actually in military intelligence or just attached to it.

tac foley

Military Intelligence is NOT the same as the British Army's Intelligence Corps.

Many soldiers and officers who were NOT in the BA's Intelligence Corps were attached to INT Corps specialist units operating in Northern Ireland during the troubled times.

Of necessity, they would all have been UK nationals, either from mainland UK or Northern Ireland, as much apart of the UK to the British as Yorkshire is.

As I've mentioned in a recent post on sigforum, religious tolerance, that is to say, 'we don't give a flying *** what you worship so long as it doesn't interfere with your military duties', is part of what makes the BA a great place to be, and as long as this guy was doing his job to the best of his ability, and setting aside those religious differences that are STILL the cause of so much grief in Ireland even as we speak, he would have had no problems.

Besides, there is the 'little matter' of passing the stringent personnel security vetting...something that EVERBODY has to do these days to one level or another. You can bet your life - literally - that he passed.

tac

Horse84

tac foley wrote: »

Military Intelligence is NOT the same as the British Army's Intelligence Corps.

Many soldiers and officers who were NOT in the BA's Intelligence Corps were attached to INT Corps specialist units operating in Northern Ireland during the troubled times.

Of necessity, they would all have been UK nationals, either from mainland UK or Northern Ireland, as much apart of the UK to the British as Yorkshire is.

As I've mentioned in a recent post on sigforum, religious tolerance, that is to say, 'we don't give a flying *** what you worship so long as it doesn't interfere with your military duties', is part of what makes the BA a great place to be, and as long as this guy was doing his job to the best of his ability, and setting aside those religious differences that are STILL the cause of so much grief in Ireland even as we speak, he would have had no problems.

Besides, there is the 'little matter' of passing the stringent personnel security vetting...something that EVERBODY has to do these days to one level or another. You can bet your life - literally - that he passed.

tac

Nobody's saying he shouldn't have been there. In the book he talks quite positively about his experience in the army and his background was never really questioned.
As regards the vetting well it must have missed his staunchly republican family connections, his cousin was an IRA volunteer. He also alleges he almost joined the IRA himself....

tac foley

Fadó in imigiin ...

tac